Big news: Matt Striker announced that in two weeks, episode 6, the NXT after WrestleMania, the Pros will vote and one of the NXT Rookies will be eliminated. There are eliminations now all of a sudden! What will they think of next?

Also, suddenly the Rookies wins and losses are being recorded on the chyron. I thought I was the only one keeping tabs on that. What's next? NXT Rankings?

I smell an angle where Miz will use his 0-4 record to get rid of Daniel Bryan, who'll then wrestle the Miz for his right to exist in NXT.

Maybe it's just me but Matt Hardy is like a fat, greasy vampire. He's the only Pro who strikes me as sucking on the vitality and youth of his Rookie to help revive sagging interest in his career. I'd love an angle where Khali takes Hardy to task for devoting too much time to Gabriel and not enough to their New Oddities.

After the post victory attack on Young by the Straight Edge Society, I wonder if NXT will suddenly allow Pro-switching next?

Michael Cole only turns on his obnoxious heel voice when he craps all over Bryan. Cole sure hates the Daniel Bryan Manliness Meter on Twitter.

Cole on David Otunga: "I like this kid!" Of course he does. Cole (i.e. Vince McMahon) likes the big muscle guy who can't work and is married to Jennifer Hudson. And when Jennifer Hudson doesn't appear on WWE TV, Vince will wish him well on his future endeavors.

He didn't exactly impress, nor has he been given as much TV time as his NXT peers, but I think Michael Tarver is generally smoother in the ring than Otunga and Young combined. Why am I only comparing him to the other black guys? Moving along...

I liked when Jericho broke character and laughed at his own yelling at Cole and Mathews.

The crowd only seem to react to Gabriel and Bryan. Maybe NXT should add another innovation and let the Rookies talk more.

I took notes on Twitter so I'd be prepared to respond to your post. Let's see if I can repeat myself and make it sound fresh!

It's quite possible I haven't been paying attention, but Punk is REALLY doing some strange sculpture with his chest hair. Everything below the pec is shaved off, and the stuff right AT the lower boob line has been encouraged to get really bushy - almost like a second mustache, but the mustache of 1900s bodybuilders like "Family Guy's" Phineas & Barnaby. He shaves the cleavage of his underboobs! I AM SPENDING TOO MUCH TIME NOTICING THIS

I think it's hilarious that all of a sudden, wins and losses matter. What is this, ROH? Oh, wait, this must be a Daniel Bryan effect!

Dave @Lagana tweeted a photo of Bryan's entrance - I believe it probably took him so long to do that that by the time he looked up from his smart phone, Khali had already finished squashing Bryan.

I gotta say, this show hasn't come off as interactive as we'd been promised.

So I Googled David Otunga - and was immediately sent to Wikipedia. Deep in my heart, I KNEW that when I clicked on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button, I was lying to Google AND myself. (This joke would have been a lot funnier if I'd made it three weeks ago, or just before everybody else made it.)

Then I got wrapped up in the C-SPAN video library and totally lost interest in the show - just in time, because Cole was starting to engage in his peculiar brand of performance art again. Nice of Mathews to remember his perfect record on Smackdown, though, I gotta say.

Originally posted by Tyler DurdenThis was the first NXT I didn't like. Actually it kind of sucked! (Maybe because of Khali and Show?)

And where was Cena? Yesterday (!) on wwe.com they said he would be there and give the rookies some advice!? Not that this would have made the show any better ...

Well, maybe Cena is still knocked out from Show's KO punch last night on Raw? So yes, maybe it IS Show's fault! More likely it's probably the fact that the last half hour featured 3 of my least favorite rookies which are Tarver, Slater and Skippy. Hopefully they will be gone first. I did enjoy the first tag match.

I have to say, for all his prior experience you'd think Bryan would be smarter than going for the top rope "I'm gonna jump at you without looking like I'm trying to do a move" move at a big guy like Khali. That move NEVER works for for a little guy against a big guy! I seriously hate those kind of spots.

I can't figure out why Tarver -- a guy who can knock anyone out in 1.9 seconds -- never seems interested in even attempting to do so.

I enjoyed Skip and Regal's interaction in the back -- mostly for Regal's exasperation, but I thought Skip nicely underplayed his role as well.

I'm glad that Gabriel ditched the entrance gear.

--K

***EDIT!!

You know, after thinking about it for awhile (idly, but still), I wanted to add: what impresses me the most about this show is that they've taken eight COMPLETE UNKNOWNS (slight exception for Bryan, but this applies either way), introduced them all at pretty much the same time, and within two weeks -- pow! -- they've drawn their characters so sharply that I could describe their personalities -- not their appearance, but their personalities -- in two words and you'd know which one I was talking about. That's amazing.

It's much different than the way things currently are in TNA, where the Young Guys are tossed out into the ring and they wrestle, but we have no idea who these guys are, because the promo time is all taken up by the Old Fellers saying the same things over and over again. Are we supposed to care about Max and Jeremy Buck? Why?

WWE does the same thing -- see Braden Walker, Gavin Spears, DJ Gabriel -- no one cares when they're let go, because no one has a reason to care. But with NXT, they've done the opposite in an astonishingly short amount of time.

WWE does the same thing -- see Braden Walker, Gavin Spears, DJ Gabriel -- no one cares when they're let go, because no one has a reason to care. But with NXT, they've done the opposite in an astonishingly short amount of time.

--K

quote]

Maybe they actually learned from their mistakes? Cos you're absolutely right. Like em or not, we get to know who these guys are before they really make a big splash.

DJ Gabriel got a gimmick (OMG! Watch him dance!) but other than the announcers saying he loved to dance, we didn't get to care.

NXT does the same thing as they did when they introduced people with promos. Mr. Perfect's promos were so good that when we met him, we knew who he was. Those kind of things actually work. Though sometimes of course the actual character can be a let down.But hey, I'm not telling you something you don't already know.

When Sheffield dodged Barret's lunge at him in the corner, I really wanted to have Regal yell out, "Nice move, Sunshine." Sadly, I was let down.Only to be brought back up by Jericho's yelling at Cole/Matthews about how much they ned to talk about Barret.

Jericho being legit high on Barrett really comes through in his interactions with him. If nothing else, Bryan and Barrett have been given a leg up by this that no amount of ECW title reigns could have achieved.

Just when you think you like CM Punk heel, there comes another surprise when the SES punishes Darren Young after their match and victory. It is interesting to see the feud between Miz and Daniel Bryan but it even more interesting with Punk and his rookie and how he is trying to handle with it.

Daniel Bryan goes 0-4 after a 3 minute match with the Great Khali. I still thought Daniel Bryan looked pretty good for the short-lived match (can someone answer why they are specifically having the "fan favorite" not win yet?). My guess is to have a deeper feud with Miz and as they said on the program, "It is about gaining attention" so perhaps it doesn't matter that Daniel Bryan hasn't gotten the W yet.

I was hoping to see a quick knockout by Tarver to add to his reputation (which I thought would have been interesting if he had a quick KO).

Wade Barrett and Skip Sheffield wasn't a bad match but there is no credibility with Sheffield. I laughed when Jericho kept harassing Cole and Matthews on commentary. Right now, I would say Barrett and Daniel Bryan are the 2 front-runners but with Justin Gabriel right behind (it is tough to pick one favorite a few weeks in right now).

Originally posted by The GameI was hoping to see a quick knockout by Tarver to add to his reputation (which I thought would have been interesting if he had a quick KO).

Right now, I would say Barrett and Daniel Bryan are the 2 front-runners but with Justin Gabriel right behind (it is tough to pick one favorite a few weeks in right now).

Oh yeah, if Tarver had KOed that tool Slater he would instantly have been my new favorite. I don't think they did those two any favors in their match by not having the pros coming out with them. Slater got the initial pop because he comes out to Christian's music, then it quickly faded when people realized it was just him.

If I had to rank the rookies at this point I would go:

1. Barrett-seems advanced in presence and promo ability so far. Decent in the ring with some nice power moves.

2. Bryan-yeah, he's lost every match but he's shown a lot of personality and decent promo ability for a guy supposedly without it. Having never seen a Daniel Bryanson match before I actually don't know how great he is in the ring and would like to see him in more than a 3 minute match.

3. Otunga-seems to have the full package to me, just needs to catch up his in-ring with the rest of him.

4. Gabriel-I'm a sucker for flashy workers with cool finishers, what can I say. Put him in a team with Evan Bourne and their two finishers would be enough to get them over.

5. Darren Young-black John Cena is alright, but I don't see him as having a chance to be the "winner". I do foresee a head shaving and tag team with Gallows in his future.

6. Tarver-just haven't seen enough from him to care yet. He could still be good, but he's lost every match he's been in so far. It doesn't help that his Pro is Carlito. When is the last time THAT guy won a match?

7. Sheffield-seems to be decent promo-wise but I don't like the gimmick or the in-ring. Maybe he has a future as a comedy character.

8. Slater-unfortunately he has won every match so far. Decent in the ring but I CAN'TCAN'TCAN'T stand the guy. The hair thing, the dance, the accent ugh, plz go away.

I will pretty much agree with you on the rankings MUTigermask; I believe I have mentioned this before where it seems Heath Slater tries to hard to gain charisma. Skip Sheffield does not have a gimmick that works for him but against Wade Barrett, he wasn't too bad in the ring. I would just put Gabriel ahead of Otunga because like you, I am also a sucker for flashy workers and he probably would compliment Evan Bourne or another high-flyer such as Kofi Kingston.

To me, what is the point of having the "1.9" gimmick if you haven't used it yet? I can't say anything bad or good about Tarver because he hasn't been in the ring long enough for me to make a legitimate opinion about the guy.

Originally posted by John OrquiolaMaybe it's just me but Matt Hardy is like a fat, greasy vampire. He's the only Pro who strikes me as sucking on the vitality and youth of his Rookie to help revive sagging interest in his career. I'd love an angle where Khali takes Hardy to task for devoting too much time to Gabriel and not enough to their New Oddities.

As i watched that match i imagined how great it would be if we found out at the end of the voting all the other pros had ignored the list of rookies they were supposed to vote out and inserted Matt Hardy's name instead.

I enjoy NXT. It seems even Heath Slater is slightly less annoying as the weeks go on. When NXT was announced as a reality show i was afraid there'd be too many scripted backstage/training area fake "reality" situations and they'd turn it into a weekly soap opera, but all in all it's not a bad replacement for ECW.

Originally posted by Amos CochranJericho being legit high on Barrett really comes through in his interactions with him. If nothing else, Bryan and Barrett have been given a leg up by this that no amount of ECW title reigns could have achieved.

I agree. The issue though is that interest in the show has waned a bit. The ratings have gone from 1.4 to a 1.2 to 1.0 to 0.9 the first four weeks of the show. It is getting better ratings than Monday's Impact(which says a lot about where TNA is right now), but it's not a great sign. It is the WWE's C or D show so I'm sure they aren't pulling their hair out about it.

Originally posted by MUTigermask5. Darren Young-black John Cena is alright, but I don't see him as having a chance to be the "winner". I do foresee a head shaving and tag team with Gallows in his future.

Every time I see him, I think the same think - he looks so much like John Cena!

No doubt that Smackdown is so much a better wrestling show to watch than RAW, but a thought just came to mind. How long before Hemsley bullies his way onto the Smackdown brand and fucks up that show. Man im getting concerned.